By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HOOVER—We’ve seen the numbers—multi-million dollar budget deficits projected for the Hoover City School System each year. But there’s another number floating around: $1.4 million. Although HCS projected a roughly $11 million deficit in the fiscal year 2015 budget, the year wrapped up with a deficit of just around $1.4 million. What does this number mean for the school system?

On Sept. 14, the HCS Board of Education approved a $168 million budget for the 2016 fiscal year, in which expenditures outpace revenues by a projected $10.4 million. With revenue down $13 million compared to 2008, and enrollment up by 12,400 students, budget deficits are not a new phenomenon.

Both the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years wrapped up with a deficit hovering around $10 million, and the 2014 fiscal year saw a deficit of just under $8 million. So how did the system make up more than $8 million during the 2015 fiscal year?

According a statement from the Hoover City School System to the Shelby County Reporter, the nearly $1.4 million deficit for the past fiscal year was “an exception to what Hoover City Schools has experienced in recent years.” Due to unanticipated revenue, several under-budget expenditures and decisions to defer spending, FY15 concluded with a $1.395 million deficit.

On Sept. 21, the Hoover City Council donated $345,880.75 to the school system from the city’s settlement with BP. Additionally, HCS received “unanticipated” funds from “E-Rate monies and other miscellaneous revenues,” the statement from HCS read.

Along with the unexpected revenue, several expenditures, including utilities and technology, came in under budget. A later start date for the 2015-2016 academic year resulted in a lower salary accrual for teachers and school personnel, due to fewer days worked from the beginning of the school year to Sept. 30, the HCS statement explained.

Combined with a decision to defer spending on new buses and capital projects included in the FY15 budget, the actual deficit came out to $1.395 million, more than $8 million less than the projected deficit.

According to the Hoover School System, the FY15 actual budget deficit is an anomaly, and does not reflect the deficit trend the system has seen and expects to see this year.